Spring Break at Museum

Climbing in the clouds. 

Wind blown. 

Playing in the water. 

Making natural energy. 

Making camp fire biscuts. 

Coloring on the wall. 

A "Paint" brush horse. 

Spring is Here

Spring has started to show up all over.  

Daffodils, budding trees, spring rain, sometimes spring snow, sunshine, followed by warm sun spots, birds chirping, and of course one of my favorites I'm watching a robin build a nest right outside my new kitchen window.  Sure helps pass the time doing dishes as I watch the happy couple wiggle around in their new home trying to shape it into what they hope it will become for their chicks.

 Here's our recent list of events:

1. Jayden's poor ears didn't get better.  He ended up getting a bulging ear drum and was pretty miserable for almost 2 weeks.
2. Spent our Spring Break in Nevada with my parents.  Such a breathe of fresh air!
3. Enjoyed driving for many hours, (best trip yet with kids) 
(I think we may have finally found our traveling rhythm) making sugar cookies with Grandma JoDee, hiking with Grandpa Bryan, touring the tanks, watching blossoms in bloom, going to church with Grandparents, visited the Discovery Museum,helping Grandpa build a chicken coop, and driving home for several hours. (still good kids!)
4. Came home to no power and realizing that we'd paid the wrong power bill.  Fridge food and freezer food, GONE.  Large chest freezer still did ok.
5. Stayed a night at the bishops house, too cold to stay at ours.  Until further arrangements could be made to restore our power.  We are blessed to have such caring and loving people all around us.
6. Power came back on!  Excited to finally be home!
7. Symi got a cold and it turned bad.  She ended up in the urgent care with what we thought was Strep Throat.  She was so sick with fevers, chills, aches, and sore throat.  Strep test came back as negative.  Doubled checked her throat and she had developed ulcers all down her esophagus from the cold symptoms and drainage down her throat. 
8. Pain meds, liquid diet, and rest.  Lots of movies, books,  coloring books, hold me please Mommy, and no naps. Took her over 10 days to get over just a simple cold.
9. Took our boy cat to the vet to be "fixed".
10. Questions came from Ben about "Why we were doing that?" and "How do cat's make babies?"  
11. Spent a beautiful moment explaining to him about sex.  (Been worried about this heart to heart talk for his whole life.  And it went so well. I'm grateful for the inspiration that came with my simple heartfelt prayer to Heavenly Father that I could teach him the correct principles, doctrines, and truths.  With the beauty that he intended it to have and be.)
11. I got sick.  Now I know why Symi was so miserable!?
12. Thank goodness for General Conference Weekend!  It allowed me to take a break from my calling and rest.
13. My heart is full from a heart to heart talk with my Hubby about many things that have been tugging us apart.  Many messages shared help to soothe our tender feelings and help us to strive to help and heal each other.  I feel like we have both got back onto the same track and are striving to work together.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!
14. Looking forward to our little Easter Celebrations this week.  Both family traditions (aka: coloring eggs, getting an Easter Basket with goodies, hiding eggs, finding eggs, and yummy food!) on Saturday, and remembering our Savior and his sacrifice on Easter Sunday (we have a special activity that we do every year with Easter Eggs and scriptures.  Each egg is filled with a small symbol of the scripture read. Our kids LOVE this!)

Bike Wreck

This wasn't right after the picture, but like 4 days later.
He wasn't even a bike owner for 5 minutes and crashed it! Guess we'll have to work on that one, with lots of practice.

Closer look.

Holdin' Him

This is the first time that Symi finally asked to hold Jayden!!
Since he was born she refused to hold or touch him. Now she is warming up and has held him a few times.

Ben told me the other day,"Jayden is getting to BIG!! I can't even hold his head up anymore and he can't even do it too!"
Poor baby boy is already into clothes that Ben wore at 5-6 months!
(Jayden at 2 months)

Jayden at 4 weeks.
It's amazing how fast they grow and change!

You've Had A Birthday!

Treasure Chest Birthday Cake

A map to find his birthday present.

Searching high in the tree house.

Searching low in the "Spider Woods".

Following the "Dark Road".

Finding a small gift in the mail box.

The garage door opener. Where he thought his bike was waiting.
But it wasn't. There was another clue to the house!

Finding the "Big X" that marks the spot!

WAY excited about his bike! He went to ride it and not even 5 minutes later he came bawling into the house because he'd wrecked. He was upset because he wanted to get back on his bike and Dad made him come inside and get his scraped washed out. There were rocks and lots of dirt. As the day went on a dark purple bruise formed. But it didn't stop him! He's been in heaven ever since!


Happy Birthday Ben!!

Graduation!

Ben, Teacher Jenny, and Symi.

Ben graduated the other night from Preschool. He is so excited about graduation but can't wait to get back to Preschool on Monday. I keep trying to tell him that school doesn't happen during the summer. But he's still convinced that he's going Monday.
It's going to be a long summer!

Waiting for the last of his classmates to arrive for graduation.

Talya, Bella, Ben, Ellie, and Tyler.


Graduation was just too cute!! Ben sang a song that goes something like this. Toe, Knee, Chest, Nut, Nose I love you. They had actions to go with it and we were all smiles and giggles because it was SOO cute.

As we were leaving Ben really wanted to call and invite his Grandparents to be there. Seeing how Graduation was in 20 mins. I was pretty sure that none of them would be able to make it. So we got busy and left. Even went out for dinner to celebrate.
(Sorry Grandparents! I wish I would have known farther in advance because we would have loved to have you all come!)

Surgery Update

Today is the 3rd day for Ben. I believe that the 3rd day is always the hardest. I don't know why, but I proved my theory today once again. Ben has been happy, then sad, then hungry, then grumpy, then tears, then medicine, then hyper, then tired. So many different things in such a short period.

His surgery went very well. We got in at 10:45 but had to wait until after 12 to have his surgery. I will tell you, that is a REALLY long time for a 4 year old to wait, fasting. He was so hungry and thirsty, and cried every time he asked," Please can I have a drink now?" It was so hard to tell him no. The surgery took about 2 hours and he did very well. It took him a while to come to, and even after he finally was conscience, he still wasn't there. They brought him to us in our room. When I saw him I gasped a little and quickly wanted to hold him. He was bawling and shaking and just scared. And he had the FATTEST lip I've ever seen!! He cried for about 10 mins, settled down, and cried again. Dane traded me so that I could take a quick potty break. Dane reclined the chair and finally got Ben to fall asleep on him shoulder. They both slept for about 30 mins. When the nurse came in to check on him. She was just as startled at his lip as I was and left in a hurry. She came back a few minutes later with the Dr. He examined his lip and began to appologize. He said sometimes when they have all the stuff in their mouth that the lip gets pinched and they didn't know. His lip stuck out so far, really puffy, and hung almost down to his chin. (I tried several times to get a picture of it while they were sleeping. But he was cuddled into Daddy so much that I was never successful.)

When he finally came around he was more worried and bothered by the IV than anything. He suddenly sat up and began to tell Dane about the spider that we need to squish when we get home, that was by the basket. We were very confused. He kept repeating himself. It was then that I remembered that Ben was putting his shoes away after the Drs office on Monday. He had spotted a small spider and web behind the shoe basket. He told me that he wanted his Dad to squish it and would wait to tell him until he got home. Well Ben forgot, until he was coming to and remembered that spider back there.

As soon as he was able to walk to the Nurse's Station, and get a sticker, we could take the IV out and go home. They really wanted him to use the bathroom as well while we were there, but Ben was intimidated by the large toilet, that he asked if he could go home and use the bathroom. They agreed and asked that if he didn't use the bathroom before he went to bed tonight to bring him back in. We were released just after 5 and got home around 5:30.

We got home and immediately he was starving!!! He wanted to eat and drink so much!! I didn't dare tell him no! He ate way too much food. He started to sweat profusely. His hair was soaked. His shirt in front, back, and arm pits were soaked. I asked him if he was ok, and as he was trying to stand his body began to shake uncontrollably. His teeth chattered and he was crying so hard because he was scared. I asked him if he was going to throw up and he said yes. I grabbed the garbage and he threw up. I tried to call Dane and have him come home, because he had left to work again. But was unsuccessful. So I quickly chatted online with him and ran back to Ben just in time for him to throw up again. Followed by hard dry heaves. He finally melted in my arms. Dane arrived shortly after. Poor Ben was whooped. We took him to bed and he slept all night long. I was supposed to wake him and give him medicine. But I decided to just let him sleep.

The next day I let him sleep in. I'm sure it helped his little body. Yesterday was a pretty good day. He felt well, but laid low, because I made him. He really kept wanting to go outside and play. But today he has paced himself much better. He's eating better and more and keeping everything down. I really think it was the anesthesia that made him so sick. Once he threw up he felt much better. Today has had it's ups and downs. We'll be staying home for the next few days and letting him rest. The worst part now is brushing is sore teeth and tongue.

Update

I've been posting on Facebook, but decided I'd better update my blog about what's been going on.

The last 2 weeks Ben, Symi, and I have been very, very sick!! Ben got to the point that he was having bloody stools and crying about really bad tummy aches. So we headed to the Dr's office. They ran some tests and then sent us home to obtain some more stool samples. After we returned the samples we waited. After 48 hours the Dr called us back and informed us that Ben was fine and not contagious. Later that week he called me back and asked how Ben was doing. I told him about the same, but that Symi and I were now sick with the same thing Ben had. The Dr just quietly said,"Oh no." I asked him what was wrong. He told me that the State had seized Ben's lab that morning due to traces of Ecoli found in his samples. And that if Ben had it we did too. He told me not to worry because there wasn't any proof yet, and that he still thought we had a nasty virus. He would contact me as soon as the results were in. (That was last Friday and we are still waiting) Since then we have all recovered and all of us are feeling normal again.

During this time, Ben had a dentist appointment that turned into a needed surgery. His opinion was that we needed to take him to the hospital and surgically fix all Ben's teeth by capping and crowning all, but his front bottom ones. He said that there wasn't very much we could do to save the baby teeth. But he wanted to prevent abscessed teeth and decaying bone structure. In hopes to save his permanent teeth. He also said that this was caused by his GERD or severe Acid Reflux. That the acid was eating away at all of his teeth. I was kind of skeptical about it all. After all he's only 4 years old!! I was also worried because he would have to be put under for 2 or more hours. So as a mother I got a second opinion. When the second opinion confirmed with the first, we scheduled a date.

Ben is scheduled to go in tomorrow and have the surgery. It know it's kind of fast and hope that he will heal quickly so that we can go visit family for Thanksgiving. I think that this has been harder on me than on Ben, but he understand enough that he's nervous and a little scared. He and I were talking about it. He was asking me questions about what would happen to him and if he'd be alright. I was trying to explain it to him the best that I could, when suddenly he interrupted me. He asked," Mommy, can we please not talk about this anymore? I don't like it." So as to his request I've stopped. We are praying that all goes well and that it helps him in the future and doesn't cause further health problems. Keep him in your prayers.

Ben's Birthday

Blowing out the candles!

Opening gifts.

Grandma JoDee, Kylee, Karylle, and baby Xyla

Grandma and Grandpa Hepworth

Handmade Stick horse from Grand- Hepworth's.

It wouldn't be a party without Dad falling through another chair.
I asked him how many this is now and he said he thinks it's #7.

Little Gracie said the water was Cold!

Tyson playing in the smaller pool.

Some of the neighborhood kids, playing with squirt guns in the larger pool.
Addi, Lexi, Ben, Eli, and Bailey.

Mom's and Dad's visiting and later playing in the water too.

Tyson again.

And again. He was so cute playing in the water!

Grandma Hepworth and Symi

Ben opening his gifts. He was spoiled!

His beloved pistol's that he constantly has attached to his hips.
He told me he's getting really good at shootin'.

He was so excited about his telescope, binoculars, and clock (compass).

Smiles!

He was THRILLED when he opened his shotgun!
Now he and Dad can go shootin' and huntin' together.

Ben wanted an Alligator cake. I started and the frosting was so warm and gooey it was all I could do to keep up and not make a huge mess. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but Ben was very happy! As long as we please the "Birthday Boy" we're good!

Happy Birthday to my little boy! I hope you had a wonderful day full of fun and friends!